News-Record.com

From the State Department's human rights report on Tanzania:

"The killing of suspected witches continued. A widespread belief in witchcraft led to the killing of numerous alleged witches by those claiming to be their victims, by aggrieved relatives of their victims, or by mobs. The practice, once concentrated in Shinyanga Region, has spread to other regions as a result of the pastoral migrations of persons from Shinyanga. For example, on April 16, unknown persons in the village of Buhanga, Kiagera Region, killed 67-year-old Anna Maria, suspected of witchcraft, and her seven-year-old granddaughter Sicholesik.

"In December Mwema Bakari Kassan, a resident of Kiyanga village in Mtwara Region, was arrested by the police for alleged involvement in burning down five houses where he suspected that a sorcerer was hiding one of his relatives. At year's end the case was still under investigation. COEL indicated that the incidents were most common in Tabora, Mwanza, Shinyanga, and Kigoma regions.

"On August 28, the newspaper The African, citing statistics from the local NGO Concern for the Elderly (COEL), reported that in the preceding decade, 8,580 elderly persons within the Lake Zone had been killed following allegations of witchcraft.

"The government prosecuted persons accused of killing suspected practitioners of witchcraft, but prosecution became more difficult as persons responsible for killing suspected witches learned to avoid law enforcement authorities."

As if being eaten by crocodiles, mauled by lions, trampled by elephants or bitten by black mambas isn't enough to worry about.